1. The Significance of Access to the General Curriculum for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities
A Review of the Literature
Donna Tortu-Rueter
December 3, 2011
EDDC 804
Holy Family University
When Congress enacted the Education of All Handicapped Children Act in 1975, since amended and reauthorized in 2004 as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA), its main purpose was to ensure the equal protection under the law of students with disabilities. Educating all students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment is one of the law’s six principles. Teachers, administrators, and those responsible for delivering services to these students continue to struggle with how to include students with significant cognitive disabilities in general education classes while providing meaningful access to grade level general education curriculum. This article reviews the literature in the area of access to the general curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities and the educational outcomes for those students.

2. Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities
Definition:
Students with moderate to severe mental retardation, as opposed to students with mild disabilities such as learning disabilities or behavior disorders.

3. Introduction to the Issue
General Education Curriculum - Least Restrictive Environment
80% or more of the school day with children without disabilities
Only removed from regular education when access with supports and services is not achievable
Access to the general education curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities continues to be a struggle for educators despite the law.
-Federal law mandates access to the general curriculum for all students with disabilities.
-The law defines access to the general curriculum, also known as the Least Restrictive Environment (LRE), as educating children with disabilities, to the maximum extent possible, with children without disabilities.
-U.S. Department of Education considers 80% or more of the school day to be the maximum extent possible
-According to LRE, a student should only be removed from reg. ed. when access to gen. ed. w/supp. aids & svcs. is not achievable.

4. The Numbers 2008-2009 School Year
Students age 6-21 w/disabilities served under IDEA in regular public school, general education classes, 80% or more of the school day
School Year
33.1%
58%
School Year
Students with intellectual disabilities
16.2%
Students with multiple disabilities
13.2%
-In response to the legislation, the practice of including students with disabilities in the regular education classroom has improved over the years.
-Sounds good, right?

5. Inclusive Education
Brown vs. Board of Education paved the way for special education legislation and over 50 years of litigation and legislation for marginalized students.
Access to the general curriculum via grade-level academic content is compatible with and even essential to the goal of educating students with significant cognitive disabilities for post-high school, adult living in the community.
-To illustrate the impact of inclusive education on individuals with disabilities, it is helpful to put the issue in the context of segregation in general.
-In general, the purpose of school reform for all students has been to afford them the ability to become competent adults.
-This literature review discusses access to the general education curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities, the significance of those who provide the access to the general curriculum, and the significance of the participation of the students in the general curriculum.

6. Teacher Preparation
Consulting teacher model- Special education teacher acts as a consultant to the regular education teacher
Supportive resource program- Special education and regular education teacher collaborate as to the curriculum delivered in the resource room environment
Use of instructional assistants or paraprofessional aides- Assist in the regular education classroom
-Teachers express the need for more professional development related to supporting teachers in various methods of service delivery
-learning to make more appropriate instructional and curricular modifications
-supporting various service delivery models such as consulting teaching, paraprofessional aides, and cooperative teaching
-more professional development for paraprofessional aides who perceived needing more opportunities to observe other schools that practice inclusion
-teachers expressed the fact that both regular education and special education teachers are spending more time doing paperwork and not enough time teaching students
-planning time, caseload concerns, and inadequate preparation as additional barriers

7. Challenges at the District and State Levels
Grading students with disabilities
Graduation requirements
Recruiting and training qualified teachers
Ensuring access to the general curriculum
Providing professional development to staff regarding collaborative planning and teaching
Placing students in the least restrictive environment
Federal mandates that influence state and local policy with respect to aligning school-level practice with IDEIA
-Teachers and principals report additional challenges at the district and state levels that hamper their efforts

8. Student and Teacher Attitudes
High-achieving students perceive that they learn less because the class goes at a slower pace, even though this may not be the actual case
Perception by teachers to use high-achieving students as peer tutors might not be appropriate
Can lead to high-achieving students’ frustrations due to of lack of differentiation, inappropriately slow pace, or less attention from the teacher
Teacher frustration with how to define access, especially at the secondary level
-Fellow student and teacher attitudes about students with disabilities, and students with significant cognitive disabilities in particular, can greatly affect the success of these students in the general education curriculum
-High and average-achieving students’ perceptions of their fellow classmates with disabilities can affect the dynamic of the inclusive classroom altogether, not only the individual students with disabilities

9. Student and Teacher Attitudes
IDEIA does not specifically define the physical location of access to the general curriculum, much of it is up for interpretation on a case-by-case basis
General educators often differ from special educators as to the definition of access to the general curriculum
-Teacher attitudes about access to the general curriculum for students with significant cognitive disabilities can greatly affect the delivery of services to such students

10. Teacher Attitudes General Educators Special Educators
May define access to the general curriculum as receiving the same curriculum and materials as students without disabilities in a regular education classroom with support from a special education teacher or a paraprofessional aide.
May define access to the general curriculum as access to an adapted curriculum and materials that are relevant and provide meaningful learning geared to a student’s individual needs.

11. Strategies for Facilitating Access to the General Curriculum
Standards and No Child Left Behind
Systemic Change Framework
Four-Step Process
Using a Classification Schema
-Standards and NCLB- Evidence based practices such as peer supports, universal design for learning, self-determination, and teaching and assessing content standards.
-IDEIA connects to NCLB because of content standards – Alternate standards have been developed for students with significant cognitive disabilities.
-Systemic Change Framework - layered approach to effective service delivery ; the district effort, the school effort, and the professional effort; For students with significant cognitive disabilities to successfully access the general curriculum, all of these levels of the framework need to be in place and at work
-4 step process- (content standard, learning outcome, instructional activities, target specific IEP objectives for instruction). This will ensure that the instruction is aligned with standards and that the IEP addresses not only grade-level standards, but communication skills, motor skills, and social skills (standards-based IEP)
-Class. Schema - classification system based on symbolic communication level to plan general curriculum access and set achievement expectations a) pre-symbolic, b) concrete symbolic, and c) abstract symbolic

12. Adult Outcomes Gap in the literature as far as longitudinal studies
Research has shown that students with significant cognitive disabilities can learn components of academic content in tandem with functional life skills.
Access to the general education curriculum is essential for positive adult outcomes.
adult competence is the goal of school reform in general and standards-based instruction ever since the 1983 publication A Nation at Risk
students with significant cognitive disabilities can learn grade-level academic content that is relevant and beneficial to their lives.
equal educational opportunity is necessary so that no academic content is underemphasized
to give these students increased opportunities for self-determination; self-determination is crucial in setting goals for life

13. Summary
All of the above issues, while they are moving forward in a positive direction, still require attention in order to ensure that these students are educated in the least restrictive environment, as legally mandated.

14. Discussion Conclusions Implications
-Conclusions: Inclusive general education settings versus self-contained, segregated special education settings may lead to better adult outcomes for students with significant cognitive disabilities
-Implications - students with significant cognitive disabilities, in addition to all students, need to be able to become the productive members that our society requires in order to flourish

15. Suggestions for Future Research
Additional longitudinal studies for adult outcomes before conclusions can be generalized
Additional research to determine whether access in a segregated setting that parallels the general curriculum produces the same outcomes as access provided in an inclusive setting
Models for general education curriculum access are needed that can demonstrate how to balance academic and functional needs, develop IEPs that link to state standards, identify grade-level appropriate goals, and teach skills that provide meaningful access to students post-high school
More research is necessary regarding describing ways to teach grade-level academic skills as well as what to teach, and the context for this instruction.
The impact of the new emphasis of academic achievement for students with significant cognitive disabilities and how it balances with the need for acquisition of functional skills, and transition to adult living also needs to be studied
Ask parents whether they value the skills being taught to access the general education curriculum and whether it facilitates community living post-high school.